This review presents a critical analysis of the role of community participation in enhancing the uptake of nutrition interventions for child survival and anemia and whether any such increases in uptake are sustainable and scaleable. One ongoing challenge in assessing the role of community participation in health improvements is defining the characteristics of different forms of community participation and their impact on health/nutrition. To address this and to provide a methodological tool for this review, an evaluation framework was developed that incorporates a typology of community participation. This framework was applied to five case-studies of program experience in which community participation was a key element of the program design and/or delivery.